1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile networks, and more particularly to a method and system for detecting a roaming location of a mobile network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In mobile networks, roaming (and frequent roaming) locations, mostly caused by poor or no RF coverage or insufficient capacity of network equipments, are always a major concern to mobile operators. Since the RF signal quality is poor or even no RF coverage is present in the roaming location, the subscriber of a mobile network would roam out to another mobile network operated by a roaming partner. This may cause a revenue leak of a mobile operator to its roaming partner, and thus the mobile operators keep investing money and manpower in different ways to find out the roaming locations in their networks and solve them accordingly. However, most operators are still looking for a systematic and efficient way to deal with this problem.
Drive test is a common way used by the mobile operators to find out the roaming locations. Though the RF signal quality of the mobile operator and its roaming partner can be directly detected during the drive test period, the drive test still has many drawbacks. For example, the mobile operators need to spend a huge amount of testing equipments, time (e.g. several weeks may be spent for one round of drive test in a city) and manpower to perform the drive test and subsequent data analysis. In addition, the drive test is usually performed in non-busy hours to avoid traffic congestion, and is mainly performed in outdoor environment since the access to indoor buildings may be restricted. Therefore, the drive test may fail to detect the roaming location existed at indoor buildings or in busy hours.